In the course of living life, one hopefully learns lessons that are there to be learned. I recently realized how one of the Basic Laws of Nature applies to my business and especially to my clients. Let me explain, first with some background data.
In Nature, the normal state of affairs is for things to move toward a state of lower energy or greater disorder. (To the more technically oriented, this is the concept of entropy, which is found in the laws of thermodynamics.) Basically, if you take a cup of hot coffee and set it down on your desk, eventually it will cool down to room temperature. Why? The “concentrated” energy initially in the hot cup of coffee slowly dissipates into the environment. The “driving force” is the difference in the temperature between the hot coffee and the cooler environment.
As another example, suppose you have a tank of compressed air and open the valve. The air will rush out until the air pressure in the tank equals the air pressure in the environment. Why? Again, the “concentrated” energy in the compressed air dissipates into the environment. The driving force is the difference in pressure between the tank and the environment. At first the air really “blasts” out of the tank with the force of the blast dropping as the pressure difference decreases. You have probably observed this but perhaps without the technical reasons fully stated.
So, it is obvious that Nature tends toward disorder. Can you make this process run the other way? Of course, but it requires a lot of energy (to “fight” Nature), to heat the water for the coffee or to compress the air in the tank.
“Great, but what does that have to do with me or my business?” you ask. Fair question. When I work for you, whether to design a new product or machine, or to redesign an existing one, I am bringing order into your environment. Essentially, I am fighting Nature. Nature fights back. How? Stay tuned for the next installment.
By the way, if a cup of room-temperature coffee cannot draw energy from the environment to heat itself up, how does a hurricane draw energy from the ocean to form into a raging storm? Clue: Mother Nature makes no exceptions to her laws.
I look forward to any comments you would like to share.